Method and apparatus for reducing heavy liquid substances to dry finely-powdered form



.July 27 1926.

MacLACHLAN- METHOD A ND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING HEAVY- LIQUID SUBSTANQES TO DRY FINELY POWDERED FORM Crginal Filed August 2. 1920 Patented July 27, .1926.

PATENT ori-"ica,A

JOHN c. MAGLACHLAN, or CHICAGO, ILLINors.

- FINELY-POWDERED FORM.,

Continuation of application Serial No. 400,571, filed August 2, F1920.. This application. filed uly 5, 1924.

Serial No; 724,474.

My present invention has for its special object the provision of an improved method and apparatus or device' for use in reducing heavy fluid or semi-fluid substances to dry powdered granular or finely divided form. One of the uses of this improved apparatus or device is to produce an oatmeal breakfast food that may be very quickly prepared for.

- breakfast foodprepared by the use lof my improved apparatus can be prepared for table use simply by bringing the same to a boil or by pouring boiling water onto it, and moreover, theproduct thus prepared is a superior breakfast food. Before the oatmeal, forexample, is treated with the improved apparatus, itwi'll first be boiled until it is thoroughly cooked and then, while in a semifluid condition, will be fed to the spraying head of my improved apparatus. This spraying'head is arranged to rotate and to discharge the cooked oatmeal, theny in the form of'gruel, in an umbrella-like. film, within a drying chamber containing a drying medium, such as hot air. As the film of gruel is projected by centrifugal force fromthe periphery of the spraying head, a film of dry or superheated steam is projected through the same and this thoroughly disintegrates the material and very greatly raises the temperature of the particles ofthe meal.v Just after the film of dry steam'is projected through the film of gruel or meal, a blast of hot air is blown through the same, and thereby, the particles of the meal are quickly dried. The actions just noted are preferably produced at the top' of a large and deep drying chamber, so that by the time the particles reach the bottomV of the drying chamber, they will be in dry solid but spongy condition and will not cohere or stick together.' The particles of the meal will vary in size considf erably, but the dry product will be of a character that may b e termed a coarse granular condition, that is, this substance will usually be considerably coarser .than coarsely ground cornmeal, as commercially sold.

`The apparatus above described in a general way is illustrated in the accom anying drawings wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout t-he several views.

Referring to the drawings: l

Fig. lis a vertical axial section illustrating the apparatus, some parts being shown in full; A

F ig.`2 is a horizontal section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is an axial vertical section of the spraying head and associated parts showing the same on a large scale than in the other views; and

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view with some parts broken away, showing elements of a spraying head that are in the immediate vicinity of the line marked 4 4 on Fig. 3.

The numeral 5 indicates a large dryingl chamberl which, to illustrate,' m ay be assumed tobe about twenty feet in height, solidly built upon a basement floor, or the lower portion of the drying chamber 5 but above the bottom thereof, isa runway 6,

which, as shown, supportsa platform 7y andV upper .compartment 5a and a lower second-l ary compartment or chamber 5b. From the compartment 5" extends an air outlet -pipe ll that is connected to the casing of a suction fan l2.

' The numeral 13- indicates an air heater,

the outlet stack ltof which extends intol the topof the main chamber 5a and is connected to an annular hot air discharge blast METHOD AND APPARATUS .FR RED'J'CING HEAVY LIQUID SUBSTANCES T0 DRY Extended diametrically through the pipe 15, which latter, as shown, is secured to the top of the chamber y5 and is provided in its underside witht amultiplicity ofhot air discharge passages 16 that will discharge an annular blast ofvhot air downward into the drying chamber.

The spraying head or device above described in a general way is located at the center of the annular hot air' blast pipe 15,

"adapted to be driven by a belt 21 that runs over a pulley-22 on said spindle and'over a pulley 23 o'n the armature shaft of a :small high speed electric motor 24.

Secured lto the lower end of the tubular spindle 18 is a spraying head in the form of a concavo-convex disk 25, the convex side .of which is downward. Thev numeral 26-in dicates'a smaller tube located within the rota tubular spindle 18 but held at its upper len a'gainst rotation, by a supporting cap 27 that is secured to the bracket 20. The numeral 28 indicates a funnel that delivers into the u per end of the nonrotary feed tube 26. he lower end of the feed tube 26 deliversinto the hollow discharge head 29 that is secured to the underside of the concave spraying head or disk 25. This hollow discharge head 29 is formed by a bottom plate that is connected to the disk 25by circumferentially spaced lugs 30 shown 1n sec-- tion in Fig. 4.

The gruel or cooked cereal may be placed in a vator tank 3l suitably supported and provided with a faucet 32, or thellke, controlling the discharge thereof into the funnel 28.

The numeral 33 indicates an approximately cylindrical steam deflector that is secured in its upper end to the bracket 20,

i is located concentrically around the rotary spindle 18 andhas a slightly outward lower deflecting edge 33a that is concentric to and spaced but slightly from the outer edge of a spraying disk 25.

The numeral 34: indicates an annular steam nozzle that surrounds the defiector 33 just above its lower edge 33a and is perforated at its underside for the discharge of steam. The numeral 35 indicates a steam supply pipe which leads from a suitable source of I dry or high pressure steam, and is connected tothe steam nozzle pipe 34. .As shown, the steam pipe 34 is provided with two manually operated controlling valves 36 and 37. The operation of the app-aratus briefly summarized is substantially as follows;

The cooked gruel or food in heavy liquid condition will be delivered into the -faucetof the funnel 28 and will run through the non-rotary feed tube 26 into the discharge mesetas an umbrella-shaped Hlm-like shower. The blast ofsteam issuing from the holes in pipe 34 will .pass L dorsznwardly through this film or. shower andthe particles of the substance will be heatedfandseparated by they compact of the steam sof that the material will be finely disintegrated; The blast of hot air from the conduit lwiltencounter the separated particles and the `atter will be quickly and practically instantaneously dried and precipitated in the bottom of 4the hoppers 9.

This precipitated materialwill be in the,

formof a granular food substance comprising dried andseparated particles.

The dried coarse' granular food product `caught in the hoppers 9 may be fed out of the hoppers by the spiral conveyers 10, but this'feature, however, constitutes n o part of the present invention. v

The projection of the wet food substance in the form of a thinlm or spray presents the same to a hot drying medium in such condition that itmay be quickly and evenly dried. By the film of dry high temperature or superheated steam, 'the substance is thorvoughly disintegrated, rendering it possible to quickly dry the same. The temperature of thethin -film of food substance will also be raised to such a degree that the drying thereof, even by natural cooling action in air under atmospheric conditions, would be rapid, but in the presence of the drying medium or' air, this drying takes place almost instantaneously. -These facts have been demonstrated in actual practice. The steam used as above set forth acts to disintegrate the material and also to heat the same. The steam, therefore, forms a very effective di'sintegrating means. Without the' breaking up, beating or disintegrating action it-is im-v possible to quickly and properly dry the material. This application is a continuation of applicants copending application filed August 2,1920, S. l\. 400,571.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in theiform, details, arrangement and proportion of the apparatus and in the sequence of steps of the method, without departing from the scope of applicants invention, which, gen. erally stated, consists-in such a method and apparatus as described and illustrated and defined in the 4appended claims.

What is claimed is:-

1. The process of', converting semi-Huid material into dry finely divided form comprising forcibly and lc'entrifugally projecting said material substantially horizontal outwardly in lan open heated chamber to form a thin umbrella-like shower and passing a blast of steam downwardly through said shower whereby said material is disintegrated and heated and carried downwardly by said steam and gravity.

2. The process of converting semi-fluid material into a dry nely divided form comprising centrifugally projecting said material substantially horizontally at high speed in a casing having an uninterrupted interior to form an umbrella-like shower and passing a blast of superheated steam down-` v prising a closed casing having an open unproj ecte obstructed interior, means at the top central portion thereof for centrifugally projecting .said material horizontally outwardly in a thin umbrella-like shower, and means outwardly of and above said means for pass- -ing a substantially annular blast of heated air downwardly through said shower.

5. The process of converting semi-Huid material into vdry finely divided form comprising projecting saidl material centrifugally, in an open unobstructed chamber, forcibly directing a current of heated disintegratingl medium downwardly through said material and also directing a current of heated drying medium throughl said material outward of said first mentioned current.

6. The process of converting semi-fluid material into dry finely divided form, comprising projecting said material centrifugally nan open unobstructed heated chamber and directing a current of steam down# wardly through said projected material and also di/recting a current of heated drying medium downwardlythrough said material l .l outward of said first mentioned current.

f 7 The process of converting semi-fluid material into dry finely dividedform, comprising projecting said material centrifuvgally and directing a current ofjsuperheated steam downwardly through said projected `material and also directing'a current'of hot air through said material outward of said first mentioned current.

8. In a device of the class described, the

-combination with -a rotary discharge head adapted under the action of centrifugal force to project heavy fluid substances inthe form `of a. radial umbrella-like shower, means for projecting an Aannular. blast of su erheated steam downwardly throu h said shower toheatand divide the partie es thereof. s

9. The combination set forth in claim 8,

and means for projecting an annularblast of hot ,drying medium downwardly through said shower outside of said blast' of steamrfl l` 10. In a device of the kind described, the

combination with an upright rotary tubulary spindle, of a discharge head in the form of a diskthat is concave in its underside and ffl rotates with and receives from the lower end -0f Said spindle and is thereby adapted to project an umbrella-like film-like shower under the action-o-f-centrifugal force, and 1' an annular) nozzle located immediately above said discharge head and surrounding said spindle and adapted to project an annulary film-like blast of superheatedsteam downwardly through the first noted filmimmediately as itpasses from the periphery of l said discharge head.

11. In a device of the kind described, the combination with an upright rotary tubular spindle, of a discharge head in the form of a disk that is concave in its underside and rotates with 'and receives from the lower end of said spindle and is'thereby adapted to pro? ject an umbrella-like film-like shower under the action of centrifugal force, a non-rotary? annular shield surrounding the lower portion of said spindle and'termin'ating in a flange 4located adjacent to the periphery of said discharge head, and an annular discharge nozzle surrounding the lower portion of said shield and adapted to project an anf nular film-like blast of steam downwardly through 'said first noted shower immediately as it passes from the periphery of said discharge head.

12. In a device of the kind described, the ,combination with a rotary discharge lhead adapted under the action of centrifugal force, to project heavy fluid substances substantially horizontally voutwardly in the form of a film-like shower, .of means for projecting medium in the form of la film-like blast of steam directly downwardly through the a hotv drying and disintegrating Y' first noted film-like shower, and meansfor discharging a substantially annular blast of hot air downwardly throughthe said first noted shower outward of the line where the steam has been passed therethrough.

13. In a device of he -kind described, the combination with an upright rotary tubular spindle, of a discharge head in the form of a disk that is concave in its underside and rotates with and receives from the lower end of said sp-indle `and is thereby adapted to project an umbrella-like film-like shower under the action of centrifugal vforce, an annular nozzle located immediately above said discharge head and surrounding said spindle and adapted lto project an annularl film-like blast-of superheated steam `through the first notedshower immediately f as it passes from the periphery of said discharge head, and means for discharging'a substa 156 l tially annular blast of hot air through the said lirst noted shower outward of the line where the steam has been passed therethrough. y

14; In a device of the kind described, the combination with an upright rotary tubular spindle, of adischarge head in the form of a disk'that is conca-ve in its underside and rotates with and receives from the lower end of said spindle andis thereby adapted to project an umbrella-like {ihn-like shower under the action of centrifugal force, a nonrotary annular shield lsurrounding the lower portion of said spindle and terminating in a flange located adjacent to the periphery of said discharge head, an annular discharge nozzle surrounding the lower portion of said spindle and adapted to project an annular film-like blast of steam through said Afirst noted shower immediately as its passes from the periphery of said discharge head, and an annular hot lair discharge pipe located outward of but concentric to said discharge head and steam nozzle and arranged to deliver a substantially annular downward blast of air.- y

In testimony whereof I afix my signature.

JOHN o. MACLACHLAN. 

